The Final Countdown (1980)

August 1, 1980

CARRIER NIMITZ STARS IN 'COUNTDOWN'

By VINCENT CANBY

Published: August 1, 1980

''THE FINAL COUNTDOWN'' is a ''what's going on here?'' type of movie, a science-fiction film in which one character is obligated to say to another at a crucial point, ''There are forces in the universe we are only now beginning to understand.''

What's going on, briefly, is the conceit that on Dec. 7, 1980, the giant, nuclear-powered United States Navy aircraft carrier Nimitz, while cruising off Pearl Harbor, passes through some sort of time warp and finds herself cruising off Pearl Harbor on Dec. 6, 1941. When the Nimitz's commanding officer, played by Kirk Douglas, realizes what has happened, he must decide whether the Nimitz, with her complement of jet aircraft and his knowledge of what actually happened on Dec. 7, 1941, should sink the Japanese fleet and thus rewrite history, or allow history to take the course we know it did.

The Final Countdown,'' which opens today at the Cinerama I and other theaters, looks like a ''Twilight Zone'' episode produced as a Navy recruiting film. That the Navy cooperated fully in the production is apparent throughout the movie, much of which was photographed on the Nimitz herself.

The ship is one of the mechanical wonders of the world, a huge floating airbase, a spotlessly clean, perfectly run community of several thousand people who live, work and play in quarters more roomy and comfy than most of us know in civilian life. The ship is the only thing of interest in the movie. She's the principal character, but a chilly one.

The members of the crew are so proper, so gung-ho, so perfectly integrated racially and so all-round sunny-natured, they seem more like members of a gigantic choir than seasoned sailors. You know it would never be necessary to show these men a training film on the perils of venereal disease.

The film, when not wrestling with philosophical nonquestions about history, spends a great deal of time showing us what life on the Nimitz is like. We see planes landing and taking off with beautiful precision and, just to let us know that things don't always run smoothly on the Nimitz, we also see one plane, which has lost its landing hook, landing safely anyway because of the ship's emergency gear. We watch as a Nimitz helicopter saves from the sea two people and one totally superfluous if inoffensive dog. We observe the members of the crew running to their battle stations when general quarters is sounded. Later we are shown how the members of the crew relax. Some write letters home, some watch closed-circuit color television, and some just sit around and ''rap,'' probably about helping old ladies cross streets in downtown San Diego.

The footage dealing with the mechanics of the Nimitz is, in fact, interesting, and there is one quite comic sequence in which several of the Nimitz's jet fighters take on two, totally baffled World War II-vintage Japanese Zeros.

As an entertainment film, though, the movie is utter nonsense. In defense of Don Taylor, the director, I must say I don't think there was any way in which he could have made sense out of the screenplay or could have directed the actors to speak this dialogue with conviction. In addition to Mr. Douglas, the cast includes Martin Sheen, Katharine Ross, James Farentino, Ron O'Neal and Charles Durning.

The special effects are funnier than, I suspect, they were intended to be. The time warp through which the Nimitz passes is pictured as a sort of whirlpool, upended 90 degrees, so that the ship can sail into it as if entering a carnival fun-house.

''The Final Countdown,'' which has been rated PG (''Parental Guidance Suggested''), includes some profanity that simply would not be tolerated in a Sunday school class.

Warp in Time

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN, directed by Don Taylor; screenplay by David Ambrose, Gerry Davis, Thomas Hunter and Peter Powell; story by Messrs Hunter, Powell and Ambrose; director of photography, Victor J. Kemper; edited by Robert K. Lambert; music by John Scott; produced by Peter Vincent Douglas; released by United Artists. At the Cinerama I, Broadway and West 47th Street; 86th Street East, at Third Avenue, and Gemini I, 64th Street and Second Avenue. Running time: 104 minutes. This film is rated PG.